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COPVRICHT DEPOSIT 



JOB SCOTT 



AN 



Eighteenth Century Friend 



BY 



HENRY W. WILBUR 



Philadelphia 
Published by Friends' General Conference Ad- 
vancement Committee 
iqii 



*$ 



Copyrighted in 1911 by 
Henry W. Wilbur. 



4 P. 75" 

©CI.A305098 



CONTENTS. 

Foreword 5 

The Time of Testing 10 

The Period of Spiritual Adolescence. 15 

The Visit to England and Ireland. . . 31 

Salvation by Christ 39 

Job Scott's Christology 52 

Various Opinions 65 

Belated Criticism 85 

Sample Sayings 95 

Appendix 105 

Index 110 



FOREWORD. 

Job Scott, child of the eighteenth century, 
and Friend "by convincement, ,, gave the most 
vigorous Quaker message to the world of any 
American of his generation. Yet he cannot be 
taken too literally, no matter how seriously. 
He was not a great ethical prophet like Wool- 
man, but rather a restater and interpreter of 
truths, as he saw them. 

Like most spiritual geniuses he was really 
a specialist at only one point; while touching 
other matters of thought and life, he accepted 
things and theories in general very much as 
he found them. Notwithstanding his rational 
and really advanced position in one particu- 
lar, his philosophy of life was based on the 
supposition that this present world is purely 
a probationary place, and the principal reason 
for our being here is that we may get ready 

Page Five 



Page Six 

for the life to come, where the condition is 
practically fixed and final. Still, he consid- 
ered the present life not something to be arbi- 
trarily changed at death, but to continue as to 
life and character as the "great change" finds 
it. That view of life which considers it a 
constant opportunity, fraught with the possi- 
bility of continual, and even infinite develop- 
ment; something that can take on newness 
and freshness in any world, had no place in 
the conception of Job Scott, or in the thought 
of his time. 

His distinct, and possibly unique contribu- 
tion to religious thought, was to elaborate the 
fundamental Friendly theory of the indwell- 
ing spirit, and to rationalize and practicalize 
the plan of salvation, taking it out of the 
realm of the speculative, and placing it en- 
tirely within the range of the practical. Sal- 
vation from Scott's standpoint, in spite of his 
probationary theory, was a life-building proc- 
ess. It involved a realization of personal 
righteousness, and in no way recognized the 



Page Seven 

theory of imputation. To profit from the 
righteousness of Christ, without being person- 
ally righteous, was counted a mischievous doc- 
trine in his scheme. 

Those who read the citations in the follow- 
ing pages, will be struck many times by the 
way Job Scott is hampered because of the 
limitations of language. The stock terms of 
the prevalent and popular theology did not 
express the full meaning of the writer. They 
either said too much or too little. It has to 
be admitted that in our own time we sadly 
need terms that will adequately express ra- 
tional spiritual truth, without seeming to en- 
dorse positions the thinker no longer holds. 
Still we trust that Job Scott's position may 
be made plain as the reader proceeds. 

There are many passages quoted in these 
pages, which taken at their face value, seem 
to be so startling in their import, measured 
fiom the standpoint of time in which they 
were written, that one wonders why there 



Page Eight 

was not more opposition in the Society of 
Friends. At certain points Scott was quite 
as unorthodox as Elias Hicks, and the inquiry 
naturally arises "was the Jericho preacher 
influenced by his brother from Rhode 
Island ?" The question cannot be positively 
answered. The first printed edition of Scott's 
Journal appeared in New York in 1797, 
thirty-three years before the death of Elias 
Hicks. It is hardly conceivable that he was 
not familiar with Scott's writings. It should 
be remembered that while Elias Hicks 
had been a recorded minister nineteen years 
when Job Scott died, his fame as a preacher 
came mostly after that period. The first inti- 
mation of his "unsoundness," if we accept 
the claim of Stephen Grellet's biographers, 
was in 1808, nearly ten years after the publi- 
cation of Scott's Journal. Another fact in 
connection with the two men should also be 
remembered, and that is that while Elias 
Hicks lived thirty-seven years after the death 
of Job Scott, he was really two years his 



Page Nine 

senior. We do not raise these questions at 
all as puzzlers, but simply as interesting 
points to consider in studying the life and 
labors of the two men. 

Notwithstanding the limitation of educa- 
tion and experience under which Job Scott 
labored, his purpose as preacher and teacher 
of what he considered the Friendly faith, 
was to present to the minds of men a rational 
type of pure and applied Christianity. In 
the hope that in the following pages the 
thoughtful and concerned may find assistance 
and inspiration in determining the basis of 
their own spiritual lives, this little book is sent 
on its way. 



THE TIME OF TESTING. 

Of the ancestry of Job Scott we know prac- 
tically nothing. He tells us that his parents, 
John and Lydia Scott, "were accounted honest 
people," but that his father "made but little 
profession of religion/' His mother, however, 
was more religious, and attended Friends' 
meeting with some regularity. It is evident 
that Job in a measure inherited his religious 
nature from his mother. But as she died when 
he was but ten years old, her influence, how- 
ever lasting, was only meager. 

Job was born in the township of Providence, 
Rhode Island, Tenth month 18, 1751. His 
first acquaintance with Friends was as a small 
boy, when he frequently attended meeting 
with his mother, and he testifies that these 
opportunities were seasons of precious inward 
experience for his youthful spirit. In fact, he 
affirmed in later life that "in every quarter of 
the globe, children at an early age, have good 

Page Ten 



Page Eleven 

and evil set before them, in the shinings of 
the light of Christ in their hearts. " x This, he 
believed, was ''sufficient to ascertain to them 
duty, if they honestly attend to it." 

As he recounts his experience one is forced 
to the conclusion that he magnified into 
heinous sins mental attitudes and personal 
practices which would scarcely be so classed 
in our day. Youthful frivolity was his self- 
confessed besetting sin, and this manifested 
iself in certain habits and pleasures, such as 
card-playing, dancing and the like. He 
credits himself, however, with having re- 
frained from liquor drinking and profanity. 

What he considered his moral waywardness 
in association with his young companions, 
brought him under frequent inward condem- 
nation. "Often at night," he says, "or in the 
night, and sometimes near break of day, I 
have returned home from my merry meet- 
ings grievously condemned, distressed and 

Works of Job Scott, Vol. 1, p. 11. 



Page Twelve 

ashamed; wishing I had not gone into such 
company, and resolving to do so no more." 2 
But his good resolution was repeatedly fol- 
lowed by irresolution. He admits that many 
times on First-days when he should have 
been at meeting he was either playing cards, 
or "engaging in idle and dissolute conversa- 
tion." 

He states that in the midst of his most sorry 
experiences, he had seasons of serious reli- 
gious concern. During this period he declares 
that about the only people who were spirit- 
ually interested in him were Friends, and from 
them he received what he called "outward in- 
struction." 

During his period of moral unsettlement, 
and when he was turning towards a religious 
life, he was led by association to consider 
the claims of "water baptism." He was then 
near manhood, and for a time ceased to at- 
tend Friends' meetings. He was in the argu- 

2 Works of Job Scott, Vol. 1, p. 30. 



Page Thirteen 

mentative mood, and he heard more doctrine 
and disputation elsewhere, which seemed to 
meet his intellectual needs, as Friends' meet- 
ings were mostly silent. But the church serv- 
ices did not help what he afterwards consid- 
ered his low estate. Still he even then con- 
fessed that while his head was "amused" 
with the church service, his heart was in- 
spired in the silent meetings of Friends. 

At this time he became interested in the 
doctrine of predestination, which he after- 
wards considered little less than a diabolical 
delusion, to accomplish his complete spiritual 
undoing. The inevitable reaction from this 
experience was towards what would now be 
called an agnostic materialism. He argued 
with himself that there was no God, and con- 
cluded that he was not accountable for his 
conduct. He says that he "began to rejoice 
in the idea of unbounded, licentiousness and 
carnality," but he does not tell us that he put 
this idea into practice, and undoubtedly he 
did not. 



Page Fourteen 

He relates many experiences illustrating his 
periods of depression. Great fear possessed 
his spirit, so much so that many a night he 
scarcely dare enter his chamber, or lie down 
in bed. But all this he finally concluded was 
the immediate power of God upon him. 

The attitude of mind of this man, who 
would undoubtedly have denied being super- 
stitious, is shown in a dream which he says 
he had four or five times within a few months. 
This dream was a sort of panorama, depicting 
the possible end of the world. In this dilemma 
he always fell on his knees to plead for pardon. 
The prayer in the dream was always followed 
by the apparent conflagration of the world 
being stayed. Of course he was soon awake, 
filled with joy that he had escaped such im- 
minent danger. But even the depression of 
his working hours, or the hours of his dream- 
ing did not produce the desired spiritual satis- 
faction, and the real amendment of life for 
which at his best he longed. 



THE PERIOD OF SPIRITUAL ADO- 
LESCENCE. 

In the winter of 1770, according to his own 
testimony, the mind of Job Scott became set- 
tled regarding the way he was to go. While 
thereafter he had far from an easy time in 
his experience, there was no more actual fear 
and despair in his life. This point of set- 
tlement he believed was entirely reached by 
"the immediate operation, illumination and 
opening of divine life in my own mind." x 
More than that he was lead to believe that 
this was "the only principle of all true con- 
version and salvation." 

While the period of settlement had been 
reached in the domain of conviction, depres- 
sion, and consequent suffering did not cease, 

iWorks of Job Scott, Vol. 1, p. 41. 

Page Fifteen 



Page Sixteen 

and seasons of humbling and abasement fol- 
lowed. These provings he accounted for and 
justified in this fashion : "I saw pretty clearly, 
in the midst of my deepest depression, that if 
I should be favored with unremitted tranquil- 
lity and divine enjoyment, I should be in dan- 
ger of spiritual pride and exaltation." 2 

Job Scott soon began to give the outward 
evidences of his inward change, and it is evi- 
dent that he considered these vital. When 
the time came to procure new clothing, he 
bought not simply plain clothes, but the pecu- 
liar garb of Friends. This seems to have been 
an act of conformity much easier to follow 
than the language of the Society to whose 
principles and practices he had given a new 
allegiance. What he considered his natural 
reason told him that the language looked trifl- 
ing and foolish and little more than a whim. 
But he says that the Lord showed him that if 
he would be wise, he must first become a fool. 

2 Works of Job Scott, Vol. 1, p. 51. 



Page Seventeen 

These matters finally came to be considered 
part of the cross which he must take up daily. 
At last the "fullness of heavenly joy" came to 
his spirit, as the result of faithfulness to what 
he considered the divine requisition made upon 
him. 

Manifestly Job Scott was not a birthright 
member of the Society of Friends. He does 
not tell us when he was received into the So- 
ciety. In "A testimony from the Monthly 
Meeting of Providence Concerning Job Scott," 
issued after his death, it is said : "Being thus 
humbled under the various turnings of the 
Lord's hand upon him, and clearly convinced 
of the power and efficacy of the distinguished 
principle of our holy profession, viz., the light 
of Christ within man as God's gift for his sal- 
vation, he requested the care, and became a 
member of the Monthly Meeting of Smith- 
field, then extending to Providence." 3 This 
was probably about 1771. 

3 Works of Job Scott, Vol. 1, pp. 1 and 2. 



Page Eighteen 

As he became riper in experience, and saw 
the "openings of divine light," he was led to 
believe that he would be required to take part 
in the public ministry of the Society. There 
was a long probationary period after he felt 
an engagement to communicate something to 
the people, before he ventured to do so. 
While he believed he might have borne public 
testimony in life and power before he did, con- 
demnation was seldom felt because the spoken 
word was withheld. 

His first public appearance in a meeting for 
worship has been carefully noted. It was 
Fourth month 10th, 1774. There was a lapse 
of six months before his second appearance. 
From all the available evidence it seems that 
Job Scott did not speak with any regularity 
in his home meetings. Not infrequently when 
on religious visits, he sat the meeting out in 
silence. Regarding his own ministry he left 
the following lucid statement: "I appeared 
seldom in public testimony, and mostly in a 
few words at a time, and yet I have some few 



Page Nineteen 

times been made sensible of saying too much; 
and for which I have felt more pain of mind 
than I have often felt, if ever, for withhold- 
ing. However, through merciful preserva- 
tion, I have seldom to my knowledge appeared 
oftener or said more than has tended to my 
own satisfaction, and for aught I know, to the 
satisfaction of my brethren." 4 

The memorialists of Job Scott tell us that 
'Through his turn for literary improvement, 
he acquired both a competent share of common 
school learning, and made some progress in 
some other branches of literature." He is 
singularly silent in his Journal touching his 
educational advantages. We know that as 
early as 1774 he was conducting a school in 
Providence for the education of Friends' 
children. This was finally discontinued, and 
in 1778 a school was opened at Smithfield, 
under the care of a committee of the monthly 
meeting, Job Scott serving as superintendent. 

-Works of Job Scott, Vol. 1, p. 55. 



Page Twenty 

Just how long this relationship was sustained 
we do not know, but he tells us that in Fourth 
month, 1783, he moved his family to Glouces- 
ter, about eighteen miles from Providence. 
It would seem that this new departure was 
made under a religious concern, and he de- 
clares that: "Soon after I became settled there, 
I found a field of service opening before me in 
time upon my mind previous to this removal. " 
a religious line, a sense whereof I had some 

In 1780, while still teaching at Smithfield, 
he married Eunice Anthony, daughter of Dan- 
iel and Mary Anthony, she being of the same 
family as the ancestors of Susan B. Anthony. 
His wife died in 1791, having been the mother 
of six children. 

Just what Job Scott did while a resident of 
Gloucester, is not known with any certainty. 
It is very clear that he at one time practiced 
medicine, but there is no evidence that he ever 
received a medical education, and his practice 
was therefore non-professional. It is possible 
that his medical experience was had while he 



Page Twenty -One 

lived in Gloucester. Be that as it may, he 
entertained some doubt regarding the medical 
profession. In a letter dictated during his 
last illness, and about a week before his death, 
we find the following bearing upon the matter 
at issue: 

"I may be easiest to mention my choice, 
that neither of my sons should be encouraged 
to become a physician, however it may be 
thought proper to dispose of my books, etc. 
I believe a little general knowledge of medi- 
cine in possession of most modest and sensible' 
men, who would carefully avoid going out of 
their depth, and meddling in dangerous cases, 
might prove very useful to others; but alas! 
it is too frequently the case, that the most 
ignorant smatterers in it, are the most con- 
fident, and the most desperately venture- 
some." 5 

This reference would indicate that he had 
a collection of medical books and possibly ap- 
pliances, and may have enjoyed a considerable 
experience in handling diseases. 

•n\'orks of Job Scott, Vol. 1, p. 464. 



LABORS IN THE MINISTRY. 

There was a good deal of fear and trembl- 
ing in Job Scott's ministerial experience. It 
was easily paralleled in the case of many of 
the Friendly preachers of the period. War- 
ring without and fears within characterized 
the preparatory method of those called to pub- 
lic service in the meetings. To immolate the 
flesh, and suppress most of the social instincts, 
while exhibiting the outward signs of severity 
as an evidence of inward spiritual perception, 
was the rule of the so-called religious life. 
Just how much of this was a survival of an- 
cient monastic custom and pretense, is not for 
us to say. 

Job Scott, vigorous of intellect and buoyant 
of life as he evidently was, found himself al- 
most constantly burdened with the spirit of 
heaviness. Without this he would have con- 
sidered himself spiritually wayward. The 

Page Twenty-Two 



Page Twenty-Three 

psychology of that religious experience which 
has largely consisted in having a hard time, 
has not been accounted for by the philoso- 
phers, and surely will not be attempted by us. 
He made visits to meetings in Rhode Island 
from time to time. From his own statements 
we learn that he was often "shut up/' in other 
words did not have freedom to discharge 
public service. Occasionally he appeared in 
vocal prayer, and seems to have given this ex- 
ercise an exceptional value. In fact, he re- 
ported some of these prayers quite fully in his 
Journal, generally introducing the matter in 
this fashion: "I was prevailed upon to kneel 
down and publicly address the throne of grace, 
nearly in these words/' There seems every 
warrant for believing that Job Scott consid- 
ered that every true gospel minister was plena- 
rily inspired in his ministry. When not en- 
cumbered he evidently had pleasure in his 
service. On a certain First-day he made 
"thankful acknowledgment to my God, who 
after great wrestling of spirit, and deep inward 



Page Tiventy-Four 

travail, caused the powerful word of life to 
arise, as a light breaking out of darkness." * 

Job Scott made three extended religious 
visits besides the last concern which took him 
to Europe. The first was made in 1784. On 
this journey he visited most of the meetings 
in Western Vermont, and in the Hudson Val- 
ley in New York. Conditions in many of these 
meetings were not satisfactory, they being 
considered spiritually stagnant. At the 
Quarterly Meeting at Purchase he says: 
"Through all which my tongue clave as it 
were to the roof of my mouth. I was dumb 
with silence, yet enabled to keep in a good 
degree in the patience. Divers testimonies 
were borne, and I suppose to many it was a 
good meeting ; indeed I conclude it was to me; 
but in no other way than because suffering is 
good for me." 2 

We copy the following bit of experience and 

1 Works of Job Scott, Vol. 1, p. 106. 

2 Works of Job Scott, Vol. 1, p. 157. 



Page Twenty-Five 

testimony as well illustrating Job Scott's frame 
of mind regarding the relation of "private 
Friends" to the ministry : 

"Such is the weakness of some Friends, in 
divers places, in relation to a fondness for 
verbal testimonies, and so much more are they 
pleased therewith, than with the silent exam- 
ple of him, who is shut up from words, that 
when it was my lot to be silent, and Daniel's 3 
to speak, their attention after meeting would 
be almost wholly to him; and even at their 
tables, they would seem over-careful to wait 
upon him, and scarce take any thought about 
my being waited on. And yet; O frailty! 
when his lot was to be silent, and mine to 
speak, in a meeting, their care and attention 
were nearly all to me, and scarcely any to him. 
It grieved me to see so much of this kind of 
childishness in my elder brethren and sis- 
ters; and I write thus, with a real desire of 
improvement in this respect, believing that 
reading such a hint, and pondering well upon 
the subject, may be of use to many. 

"I verily believe some pay such a degree of 
veneration to the instrument, as to rob him, 

3 Daniel Aldrich, Job Scott's traveling companion. 



Page Twenty-Six 

without whom the instrument can do nothing 
rightly, of a part of the acknowledgment and 
homage due to him. And if the poor instru- 
ment is not well grounded in humility, it may 
greatly injure him also." 4 

In 1786, with Joseph Mitchell as a traveling 
companion, Job Scott started on a religious 
visit mainly to the meetings in Pennsylvania 
and New Jersey. En route the Friends stopped 
at points in Connecticut and on Long Island. 
After attending meetings in New York City, 
they passed over into New Jersey, Rahway 
being the first stopping point. Practically all 
the meetings in both East and West Jersey 
were attended. On this trip Job Scott paid a 
visit "to our dear ancient friend, the widow of 
that worthy, self-denying valiant servant of 
the Lord, John Woolman." 5 The pilgrims ar- 
rived in Philadelphia Ninth month 24th. Sev- 
eral quarterly and most of the particular meet- 

^Works of Job Scott, Vol. 1, p. 177. 
5 Works of Job Scott, Vol. 1, p. 202. 



Page Twenty -Seven 

ings within the bounds of Philadelphia Yearly 
Meeting were visited. At some of the quar- 
terly meetings he found himself "shut up," and 
in a few cases he made a second visit to the 
locality, when liberty was given him. While 
in the vicinity of Philadelphia his traveling 
companion, Joseph Mitchell, was taken sick, 
and died, being buried at Buckingham. On 
this journey Job Scott was absent six months 
and ten days, and traveled about two thou- 
sand miles. 

In 1789 Job Scott received the approbation 
of the monthly and quarterly meeting to pay a 
gospel visit to Friends in the Southern States, 
with Daniel Aldrich again as his traveling com- 
panion. The journey was begun Third month 
9, 1789. Until Philadelphia was reached, 
much the same route was taken as was fol- 
lowed in the previous journey. 

The "general spring meeting of ministers 
and elders" was attended in Philadelphia, 
where about a week was spent in a round of 
varied public service. The preacher says that 



Page Twenty-Eight 

"In the public meetings, and in the monthly 
meetings, our way was opened with admirable 
clearness, strength and authority. A watery 
season it was indeed, for the most of the week 
in this favored city." 6 

The pilgrims then passed into Delaware and 
Maryland, the meetings being pretty generally 
visited in order. The first meeting visited in 
Virginia was at Alexandria. At this point 
Daniel Aldrich was taken ill, and returned 
home, leaving Job Scott to make the remainder 
of the Southern journey alone. 

This journey took the preacher as far south 
as Georgia. Part of the time he was in feeble 
health, and while he had his periods of de- 
pression, his meeting service seems to have 
been less "cumbered" than usual when nearer 
by home. There are fewer acknowledgments 
of the "shut up" condition of his ministry. 
He was absent from home on the trip a year 
and fifteen days, and traveled about five thou- 
sand miles. 

«Works of Job Scott; Vol. 1, p. 268. 



Page Tiventy-Nine 

In reading the detailed statement regarding 
this journey in the southland, and the collec- 
tion of letters to his wife and others, one is 
surprised to note the small reference to the 
evil of slavery. Two or three very brief allu- 
sions to the peculiar institution, or to the sorry 
lot of the negroes, sums up his entire ex- 
pressed interest in the matter. It must be ad- 
mitted, however, that the Friendly movement 
against slavery had hardly reached its full 
force in the time of Job Scott. 

In a letter written to his wife from Alexan- 
dria, Va., dated Fourth month 25, 1789, we 
find the following, which constitutes the most 
elaborate reference to slavery, to be found in 
his Journal and epistolary correspondence: 

"Negro slavery has almost ruined this 
country, both as to religion, ana the outward 
soil of the earth. Friends' children have been 
brought up in idleness. Many scarcely called 
on to do an hour's business of any kind. 
From infancy to settlement in families of 
their own, they have spent much of their time 
in riding about for pleasure. The consequence 



Page Thirty 

has been almost the extinction of society. Oh ! 
that my children may be brought up to indus- 
try. Let them work, and read, and write, as 
much as may be good for them. Some 
Friends' eyes are opened in this land, and a 
few families bring up their children to busi- 
ness; a very few have, whose children are 
now grown up. Except these, there is little 
appearance of the Quaker among the youth in 
these parts. O happy New England ! that thy 
sons and daughters have to do for themselves, 
and are not so generally endangered by idle- 
ness, which a tyrannical command, and dis- 
posal of fellow men, has introduced in these, 
as to religion, almost desolate States." 7 

7Wfc>rks of Job Scott, Vol. 2, p. 72. 



THE VISIT TO ENGLAND AND 
IRELAND. 

On the 31st of Third month, 1792, Job Scott 
presented to his monthly meeting a concern he 
had to pay a religious visit to Friends in 
Europe. He says that this was a matter which 
had been on his mind for about fourteen years. 
The 29th of Eighth month the committee to 
consider the European visit, reported that they 
were not ready at that time to recommend the 
granting of a certificate. The cause of this de- 
lay is not stated. On the 26th of the following 
month, however, the certificate was granted, 
and on the 12th of Tenth month the quarterly 
meeting endorsed the certificate to Friends in 
Europe. During these months of delay in 
granting the request the concerned preacher 
seems to have preserved himself in great 

Paqe Thirty-One 



Page Thirty -Two 

patience. It seems to have been part of Job 
Scott's faith and philosophy, that if his con- 
cerns were of the right sort, they would all 
be worked out in good time. 

Having provided homes for his motherless 
children, whom he left in the care of his rela- 
tives and those of his wife, Eleventh month 
26th, 1792, he left for Boston. There was an 
interval of nearly two weeks between his ar- 
rival in Boston, and his going on board ship. 
The voyage was begun on Twelfth month 5th, 
on the Mercury, of 240 tons, her destination, 
Dunkirk, France. They had scarcely gotten 
out to sea, when the vessel was found to be 
leaking badly, and she started back to port, but 
the leaking abating she resumed her journey. 
The leak was subject to recurrence, causing 
uncertainty and anxiety to the captain and all 
on board, from time to time. But the trouble 
was finally removed, and the voyage was un- 
dertaken in earnest. It was a rough one, ac- 
companied by great discomfort. But finally 
the ship reached the harbor of Dunkirk, First 



Page Thirty -Three 

month 5th, four weeks from the time of start- 
ing. 1 

Job Scott left the vessel on a pilot boat be- 
fore she docked, in order that he might meet 
a family of Friends from Nantucket, then re- 
siding in Dunkirk. A small meeting of Friends 
was attended, where he met some Irish 
Friends who had come up from Paris. About 
the middle of the month the passage was made 
from Calais to Dover, Job Scott remarking, 
"I was glad to find myself at last in the com- 
pany of my dear Friends in England/' 

In his Journal not much attention is given to 
the details of travel, he being more interested 
in his religious concerns than in observing na- 
ture, or recording observations and impres- 
sions of scenery. There are some criticisms 
of what he considered the low state of society. 
He often traveled as at home, through deep 

1 This seems an incredibly short voyage consider- 
ing all of the difficulties at the time. This, how- 
ever, is the conclusion reached by the story told in 
pages 221 to 225 of Volume 1, Works of Job Scott. 

3 



Page Thirty-Four 

waters, but seems to have had more general 
freedom in meetings than was the case among 
his own people. 

We sometimes find more informing matters 
in his personal correspondence than in the re- 
corded details in the Journal. While in London 
he wrote to his friend Moses Brown in Provi- 
dence, under date of Sixth month 3d, 1793. 
He attended London Yearly Meeting, and thus 
estimates the meeting for the benefit of his 
friend : 

"The yearly meeting here has been large 
and solid; much more in truth's life and au- 
thority than I expected; for the mournful 
state of the ministry gave me a gloomy pros- 
pect in regard to the yearly meeting. There is 
much preaching in England, but too little of 
gospel. There are many teachers, but few 
fathers. A few sound elders here and there, 
are preserved ; but too many in that station 
delight in a sound, crave eagerly to be fed by 
the ears, and scarce know how to endure si- 
lence; and often, very often, my business has 
been to starve them, not being able to utter 
one word in the life of the gospel; and may 



Page Thirty-Five 

I never add to the number, already too great 
in this land, who minister with little or noth- 
ing of that holy ability. A few are yet pre- 
served whose trumpets give a certain sound; 
yea, often sound an alarm to (spiritual) war; 
while some do little else than cry peace; 
and sometimes not with the strictest pro- 
priety. 

There are some wise arguers in the meeting 
for sufferings; hence that meeting is not the 
most lively; but in the yearly meeting truth's 
holy presidency kept creaturely wisdom from 
much undue exertion. May so precious an ex- 
perience more and more prevail in the dear 
land of my nativity. It is more to be de- 
sired than gold or silver. It is better than the 
unsubjected efforts of the most brilliant nat- 
ural endowments. May we more and more 
press after it." 2 

While in England he attended meetings in 
about thirty different Friendly neighborhoods, 
visiting some of them more than once, and 
holding appointed meetings in a number of 



2\Vorks of Job Scott, Vol. 2, p. 191. 



Page Thirty-Six 

places where there were no regularly estab- 
lished meetings for worship. His last religious 
visit was at Liverpool, from which port he 
sailed for Dublin, Ireland, Seventh month 4th. 
Some idea may be had of the incovenience in 
traveling in those days from the length of time 
consumed on this voyage, now accomplished 
in a few hours. In a letter written to Martha 
Routh, Manchester, England, dated Dublin, 
Seventh month 10, 1793, he says : "We are safe 
arrived after a voyage of nearly a week. Our 
outward trials, contrary winds, seasickness, 
disagreeable companions, etc., were considera- 
ble, but were mere trifles compared with my 
inward trials. Never, perhaps, was I more 
reduced and empty; indeed I had scarce a 
grain of true faith, and my going to Ireland, 
looked and felt like an attempt to beat the air ; 
though many a lively view had I heretofore 
had of that place." 3 

From Dublin he made frequent religious 

3 Works of Job Scott, Vol. 2, p. 196-97. 



Page Thirty -8 even 

visits to different parts of the island. He must 
have practically covered nearly all the meetings 
in Ireland during his stay there. He mentions 
having been present at nearly forty different 
meetings and meeting houses in the Emerald 
Island. 

On the 9th of the Eleventh month he went 
from Dublin to Ballitore, and on the 10th at- 
tended the morning meeting, and an appointed 
meeting in the evening. The Irish Friends, 
who completed the last entries in the Journal, 
evidently after his death, remark that he spoke 
powerfully in both of these meetings. In fact 
he seems to have been very much in love with 
the Irish character, and to have had singular 
freedom while visiting the Irish Friends and 
their meetings. His prospect would have car- 
ried him to Carlow the following day, but the 
morning found him so much indisposed that 
the visit had to be abandoned. In a few days 
a well-defined case of smallpox had developed, 
accompanied by much physical and some 
mental suffering. Still he made several en- 



Page Thirty-Eight 

tries in his Journal - 9 dictated a long letter, and 
restated some of his oft-repeated positions re^ 
garding theological and religious matters, his 
evident desire being to leave a last word which 
would be an entire confirmation of his previ- 
our deliverances. Notwithstanding his almost 
constant bodily suffering, he seems to have 
been entirely rational to very near the end, 
which occurred about 7 o'clock in the morning, 
of Eleventh month 22, 1793. The funeral was 
held on the 24th, and the body was laid away 
in the Friends' burying ground at Ballitore. 
He was taken ill, and died at the home of 
Elizabeth Shackleton, in that village. By his 
host and her family, and Friends generally, he 
was kindly cared for, having their warmest 
sympathy and support in the day of his 
extremity. 



SALVATION BY CHRIST. 

Job Scott was equally opposed to two 
theories of salvation prevailing in his time. 
Those who relied principally upon the human 
will and right reason, by which they proposed 
to rightly order their lives, were considered 
victims of monumental error. So also were 
those formal pietists who imagined that the 
merits and righteousness of Christ, would save 
the sinner, and lead to acceptance with God. 
From his standpoint this was giving too much 
importance to the outward manifestation of 
Christ, as contained in the gospel story. Peo- 
ple of this sort, he inferred, considered that 
the moral law of God had been abrogated for 
the benefit of those who depended "on the out- 
ward coming, suffering, death, resurrection, as- 
cension, and intercession of Christ for salva- 
tion." These ideas he considered utterly at 

Page Thirty-Nine 



Page Forty 

variance with the true doctrine of salvation. 
This "has ever been, in all ages, Christ in man 
the hope of glory; a real union of the life of 
God and the life of man, and therein a blessed 
harmonious co-operation." While holding 
this pronounced position, Job Scott was of the 
opinion that good works are not really good, 
unless they have been "wrought of God in 
Christ/' He seems to have .., developed the 
theory that any human goodness, which the 
person did not credit to the divine movings 
was a species of self-righteousness, in no way 
working towards personal salvation. The 
value of preaching and praying, and all types 
of religious profession were, measured by the 
same yard stick. Tp, (quote Scott himself: 

"Names do* 'not much" alter the nature of 
things. r;There>; is ^ as< much scope for self- 
righteousfl^ss >^nd r^nk qPharjseeism gnd$£ v a 
profession of Ctirist^yea, .un^r a mo^t con- 
fident profession of 'renouncing ail our own 
rightfe6u r snes^'' as ever there was under the 
law. Our preaching, praying, and all our re- 
ligious and devotional exercises may be, and 



Page Forty-One 

too often are, in the mere spirit, will and ac- 
tivity of man; this is going about to establish 
our own righteousness, and not a whit the 
less so because we profess to have no de- 
pendence on our own works, but that we ex- 
pect all from Christ I" 1 

It is affirmed that all true religion has ever 
been the result of "the immediate inward work 
of God in man." This means that God is the 
living, continuing and moving power in the 
soul, the willingly acknowledged source of all 
good. It is the living truth of God in the soul 
which makes for salvation. On the other hand 
rejection of God is not simply the denial of the 
plan of salvation, but is a more personal and 
inward matter. "If man resists the spirit, 
turns from me grace of God, rebels against 
his light in the heart, does despite to the holy 
discoveries of truth, he tramples under foot 
the very blood of the everlasting covenant, he 
rejects the son of God, and in the midst of all 
his professional claim to the merits of a cruci- 

HVorks of Job Scott, Vol. 1, p. 477. 



Page-Fotty-Two 

fied Savior* is crucifying the life of the Lamb 
in himself/' 2 

Justification, as Job Scott understood it, was 
not simply a plan, but an experience. Hence 
we find him asserting that "our real justifica- 
tion is ever in proportion to our real sancti- 
fication, and can no more outrun it, than real 
sound health of body can consist with pain, 
sickness and putrefaction." 3 

But by justification Job Scott did not mean 
a borrowed righteousness, based on the merit 
of Christ. Men must appropriate Christ for 
themselves and be made whole by an inward 
act of spiritual transformation. He says: 
"There never was but one way of salvation, 
nor of remission of sins. Could anything else 
ever have answered this purpose but the birth, 
life, and government of Christ in man, it 
would answer still, and as well now as ever."* 

2Works of Job Scott, Vol. 1, p. 478. 
SWorks of Job Scott, Vol. 1, p. 480. 
4Works of Job Scott, Vol. 1, p. 481. 



« Page Forty -Three 

Continuing he remarks: "As far as the work 
of salvation was ever wrought in any age or 
dispensation, it was the work of God in Christ ; 
yet never was carried on and completed with- 
out the creature's consent and co-operation." 5 
This consent, in the system of Job Scott, 
meant much more than mere assent to a plan 
of salvation, and this co-operation meant 
vastly more than being united to a church in 
membership and fellowship. Co-operation 
meant the conscious working of the spirit of 
God and the spirit of man together, and with- 
out this either assent or consent counted for 
little. 

The oneness of the manifestation of God is 
set forth in the following language : 

"This is the salvation of God in every age 
and dispensation ; coming into this living faith, 
in full subjection to this inward holy gift of 
God, is our only reconciliation with him. 
This inward gift is the mediator between God 
and man; it was so in the body prepared by 

5Works of Job Scott, Vol. 1, p. 481. 



Page Forty-Four 

him to do the Father's will in ; it is so now in 
all. It is not one thing in him, and another 
in us. This is the bond of union, that unites 
God and the soul in the divine and saving 
fellowship; 'He that is joined unto the Lord 
is one spirit/ " 6 

Job Scott was quite sure that "God laid on 
him the iniquities of us all, but unless we par- 
take in the chastisement, and feel his stripes, 
we are not healed." 7 In other words, Christ 
does not perform service for us, but his spirit 
working in us enables us to do our own 
service unto salvation. Man in his own wis- 
dom, according to Scott, desires some special 
easy road to salvation. To illustrate he says: 

"The death and sufferings of Christ in that 
body are of great price in the sight of God, 
and in all things have the pre-eminence in the 
view of the saints. Therein was wonderfully 
held forth the way of salvation, as a work of 
God in man, and of man by God ; that it is all 

6 Works of Job Scott, Vol. 1, p. 496. 
7 Works of Job Scott, Vol. 1, p. 498. 



Page-Forly-Five 

through suffering a wound to heal, and kill- 
ing to make alive in God. He, the Lamb slain 
from the foundation of the world, has always 
borne the chastisement of our peace ; nor with- 
out his stripes were any ever healed. God 
hath laid on him the iniquities of us all, but 
unless we partake in the chastisement, and 
feel his stripes, we are not healed; for he 
that will save his life, shall lose it; but he that 
will lose his life, and die with Christ, shall 
save it unto life eternal. Ever of old, 'in all 
their afflictions, he was afflicted, and the angel 
of his presence saved them/ Isa. lxiii, 9. 
They had his real presence, or all else had 
been useless: they were all afflicted with him, 
as well as he with them, and those who know 
not reconciliation with God and remission of 
sins in this way are not reconciled to him. 
But this is death to man's will and wisdom 
too ; he won't endure it ; he had rather believe, 
or pretend to believe, anything than die into 
life/' 8 

To make the matter more explicit, and still 
more unlike the popular plan of salvation, he 



*Works of Job Scott, Vol. 1, p. 498. 



Page Forty -Six 

thus refers to those who accepted the popu- 
lar theology of the time : 

"But if I knew Christ no otherwise than 
they teach, describe, and declare him, I think 
I must be either a sceptic or a deist. I can 
never see the connection between the suffer- 
ings of a body of flesh, seventeen or eighteen 
hundred years ago, and the salvation of an 
immortal soul at this day, without seeing those 
sufferings connected with the sufferings of the 
seed, that is one in all. The seed groaned on 
Calvary, the seed groans in all ; 'Even we our- 
selves groan within ourselves, waiting for the 
adoption, the redemption of our body/ The 
whole creation of mankind groans more or less 
to be delivered into the liberty of the children 
of God. And this salvation by Christ, the suf- 
fering seed, the lamb slain from the founda- 
tion of the world, is, in this way, the most 
glorious display of infinite wisdom. But I 
think the systems, by some promulgated for 
the gospel of salvation by Jesus, as full fraught 
with absurdity, as almost anything I have met 
with in Mahometanism, or the ancient myth- 
ology of the heathen." 9 

9 Works of Job Scott, Vol. 1, p. 501. 



Page Forty-Seven 

We return again to the first entries in the 
Journal for futher elucidation of Job Scott's 
theory of salvation. The following extract 
also contains a clear statement of his theory 
touching Christ's pre-existence : 

"There never has been but one way of sal- 
vation: this was and is Christ, forever. The 
gospel was preached to Abraham. He saw 
Christ's day, and rejoiced in the then present 
enjoyment of the very life, light, and power 
of it. When the Jews gainsayed the testi- 
mony of Christ, that Abraham saw his day, 
and urged that he was not yet fifty years old, 
he did not, to confute them, tell them that 
Abraham saw his day afar off, by faith; for 
that was not the thing he aimed at: but, in 
confirmation that Christ within was ever the 
alone 'hope of glory/ in all ages, and was 
Abraham's divine life, and source of true re- 
joicing, he comes home to the all-important 
point of doctrine, and declares, 'Before Abra- 
ham was, I am.' As if he had said, 'I am, 
not now only. This body that you see, is but a 
body prepared for me.' The flesh profiteth 
nothing.' T am, through all time, the life of 
religion, the salvation of man, the everlasting 



Page Forty-Eight 

covenant/ This he was inwardly; and unless 
we know him inwardly, our life, our hope of 
glory, we know nothing about Christ substan- 
tially or savingly. 

"Men are ever prone to idolatry. Specula- 
tive faith, speculative salvation, and an out- 
side knowledge or opinion respecting Christ, 
now pass current for gospel faith and salva- 
tion. The only real salvation of souls, was 
always the spirit of man united to God, the 
fountain of divine life. 'He that is joined to 
the Lord/ says the apostle, 'is one spirit/ 
This was ever Emanuel, God with man, and 
man united to God. 

"The gospel is no upstart thing, of only 
about eighteen hundred years' standing. No 
soul ever was, or could be, saved without it, 
out of the life of it, or in ignorance of its re- 
deeming power. It is never ideal, or specu- 
lative, but is always inward, vital, and experi- 
mental ; and no man knows any thing more of 
it than he so knowetli it. Even though we may 
have known Christ, literally or historically, 
after the flesh ; yet, if our faith is genuine and 
saving, it is, it must be, in living, vital union 
with God, and therein we may say with the 



Page Porty-Nine 

apostle, "Yet how hericeforth know we him 
so no more/ " 10 

Eight days before his death, and five days 
after the attack of smallpox, Job Scott dictated 
a letter to his relatives and friends in America. 
His chief concern seemed to have been to con^- 
firm the views he had held and promulgated 
regarding what he believed "the very life and 
essence of the gospel. " He declared that 
about them there was not the least scruple in 
his mind. He evidently had special reference 
to his theory of "Salvation by Christ." Re- 
garding this subject he uttered the following 
words : 

"I trust I as firmly believe in the divinity 
of Christ, as any man living; but I have no 
more belief that there are two divinities, thafi 
two Gods. It is altogether clear to my mind, 
that one divinity actually became the seed of 
the woman, and bruised the serpent's head, as 
early as any man ever witnessed redemption 

i°Works of Job Scott, Vol. 1, pp. 15, 16, 17. 

4 



Page Fifty 

from sin, and is one in the head and all the 
members, he being like us in all things, except 
sin. My only hope of eternal salvation is on 
this ground; nor do I believe there has ever 
been any other possible way of salvation, but 
that of a real conception and birth of the 
divinity in man." 11 

Job Scott was not simply out of harmony 
with the popular theology touching the plan 
of salvation, but he was equally heterodox re- 
garding what salvation is. While he made 
salvation reach over into the future life, he 
was quite insistent that it represented a type 
of personal righteousness without which es- 
cape from the results of sin in the future was 
not certain, if possible. From his standpoint 
salvation represented a quality of life, secured 
by the operation of the spirit in the soul of 
man. This view left little room or reason 
for the popular theory of salvation by Christ, 
by virtue of his vicarious suffering, and it 
ignored entirely an imputed righteousness 

"Works of Job Scott, Vol. 1, p. 461. 



Page Fifty-One 

which should theoretically make whole that 
which was spiritually and practically dis- 
eased. 



JOB SCOTT'S CHRISTOLOGY. 

If we speak after the manner of men and 
of scholars, Job Scott was undoubtedly not a 
theologian. In fact, he would have shrunk 
from an affirmative claim of this sort if it 
had been made. He may never have either 
apprehended or comprehended the intricacies 
of the theology of his time touching the func- 
tion and character of Christ, or his existence 
as the third person in the popular theory of 
the trinity. One thing, however, is abundantly 
certain, and that is that in his affirmations 
regarding Christ, and his saving power, Job 
Scott utterly repudiated practically every posi- 
tion taken by the creeds regarding literal 
vicarious atonement, imputed righteousness 
and all the rest of the propositions which 
made up the commonly accepted theology of 

Page Fifty -Two 



Page Fifty -Three 

the time. Nevertheless it may be said that 
few men have ever more highly exalted the 
function of Christ, as he saw it than did Job 
Scott. 

Some years before his death he wrote an 
essay, which finally found its way into print 
under this title : ''Remarks upon the nature of 
salvation by Christ; showing that it is a birth 
of divine life in man, known long before the 
appearance of our Lord in that body that was 
born of the Virgin Mary, in which he did the 
Father's will, and exemplified and displayed 
the way and work of salvation, as a union of 
God and man — a work of God in man, and of 
man by God, in a blessed harmony and co- 
operation." 

In this pamphlet, and elsewhere in his pub- 
lished works, Job Scott set forth his views in 
regard to Christ, and the salvation which 
men secure by the divine union. In the main 
we prefer to let him speak for himself in his 
own language with little attempt at interpre- 
tation. 



Page Fifty-Four 

Touching Christ and his office as a redemp- 
tive force, there seems to have been a complete 
consistency in the thinking of Job Scott all 
through his life. That he constantly con- 
sidered that Christ and the person of Jesus 
were not identical, is attested in various pas- 
sages scattered through his Journal and pub- 
lished essays. Among the very early entries 
in the Journal is the following: 

"Thus the Jews, even while they were ex- 
pecting Christ's coming, knew him not when 
he came. They overlooked and despised his 
mean and ordinary appearance; thought he 
was Joseph's son and born among them, and 
so rejected, abused, and finally put him to 
death. But they were mistaken in his pedi- 
gree: his descent was from heaven; and God, 
not Joseph, was his Father. Just so are 
thousands now mistaken, as to the dignity and 
origin of God's spirit in them; they think it 
is of man, a part of his nature and being; 
whereas it is of the very life, power and sub- 
stance of God. Its descent is as truly from 
heaven, as was that of the Lord Jesus/' 1 

1 Works of Job Scott, Vol. 1, p. 28, 



Page Fifty -Five 

At the age of nineteen Job Scott says that 
he became fully convinced that the spiritual 
operation within himself inspiring him to self- 
denial and renunciation of sin, "was the true 
and living spirit and power of the eternal 
God." He then repels the charge that this 
conception "robs Christ of the honor of our 
redemption and reconciliation," and remarks: 
"It was through the eternal spirit, this very 
spirit that visits and strives with all, that 
Christ offered up that prepared body. It is 
through, and only through, the influence of the 
same holy spirit that any soul was ever con- 
verted to God, or savingly benefited by the 
redemption that is in Jesus." 2 

The following paragraph represents one of 
Job Scott's strongest arraignments of a purely 
theoretical and doctrinal salvation : 

"The death of Christ is nothing at all to thee 
savingly, further than thou hast the living, 
saving efficacy of it sealed to thee. Nothing 

-'Works of Job Scott, Vol. 1, p. 41. 



Page Fifty-Six 1 

can possibly do this, without touching and 
changing thy heart. If thou dost not feel it, 
it is nothing. Thou may imagine and dream 
a thousand things about faith, regeneration, 
and imputation; but unless the holy spirit 
change thee, and give thee to feel and know 
salvation, in and for thy own soul, thou would 
be just as much benefited by imagining that 
Joseph of Armathea, or any other person, had 
purchased thy salvation, and that, by imputa- 
tion of what he had done, God would, at some 
future time, save thee. For everything that 
is not felt, is as totally unavailing to thee, as 
the most ungrounded imagination: and until 
thou sensibly feelest some real benefit, thou 
hast received no more, substantially and sav- 
ingly, than thou mightest receive by a strong 
imagination, persuasion, and hope, from any 
other quarter." 3 

Passing to the Scott pamphlet on " Salva- 
tion by Christ," we find simply an elaboration 
of the points already quoted from the Journal 
proper. In the prefatory article to this pam- 
phlet, he makes reference to the objections 

3\Vorks of Job Scott, Vol. 1, p. 41. 



Page Fifty-Seven 

which those whom he calls "professors" make 
to his doctrine, and admits that many Friends 
are afraid of these objections. Personally he 
is not moved by any of these things. He 
intimates that so-called professors have 
always objected to every unfolding of new 
truth. "But what avail their cavils, or in- 
deed what avails their quiet with us, if it is 
in a way that allows them to live at ease in 
sin, under a mistaken notion that they are 
going to heaven by Christ." 3 

This contains an implication that may not be 
easily understood in our time. We hear less 
and less in these days of a type of profes- 
sional religion prevalent in the days of Job 
Scott, which divorced salvation from life and 
conduct, and based it entirely upon the ac- 
ceptance of orthodox doctrine. 

It was the opinion of Job Scott that "truth 
has rarely been promoted after a time of stag- 
nation, ease and superficial profession, but in 

-Works of Job Scott, Vol. 1, p. 474. 



Page Fifty-Eight 

and through the fresh openings of something 
which the spirit of the world, however high 
in profession, could not receive. ,,4 In other 
w T ords, fresh revelation is as necessary to pro- 
gress in the domain of spiritual truth, as is 
the spirit of invention in the world of me- 
chanics, or discovery in the natural world. 

From the standpoint of Job Scott the fact 
that gross darkness covered the earth "in the 
midst of high profession of Christ," was 
proof positive that men had not experienced 
real salvation, and were therefore in need of 
being led to the "fountain of living waters." 
He sums up the whole case in this paragraph : 

"I would as soon trust my immortal state 
upon the profession of deism, as upon the 
common notions of salvation by Christ ! Many 
seem to think, if Christ, in name, be the ob- 
ject of their profession, they are certainly in 
the true faith ; whereas too few have any clear 
sense either what or where Christ is, and 
many are ready to quarrel with every thing 

4 Works of Job Scott, Vol. 1, p. 474. 



Page Fifty-Nine 

that tends to open the mystery. I am as sure 
there is no salvation out of Christ, as I am of 
any thing in the world: I am also as sure 
that the common ideas of salvation are very 
greatly beside the true doctrine of salvation by 
Christ. And, moreover, I am as easy to risk 
my everlasting condition upon the true faith 
and fellowship of Christ, as inwardly revealed 
from glory to glory to those who keep a single 
eye to his holy light within them, as I am in 
believing that God made the heavens and the 
earth !" 5 

We have not been able to find a clear state- 
ment in the writings of Job Scott touching the 
theory of the miraculous conception. To be 
sure he refers repeatedly to the "prepared 
body, born of the virgin, ,, but this would not 
fully commit him to the real theory of the 
virgin birth. That he considered that there 
was some special preparation for the body of 
Jesus is quite likely, if not absolutely certain. 
But it is not possible to say whether he con- 



5\Vorks of Job Scott, Vol. 1, p. 475. 



Page Sixty 

sidered this "preparation" an act of creation, 
as did Elias Hicks, or whether he thought of 
it as an actual conception, or process of gen- 
eration. 

There is, however, a rather mystical state- 
ment in the writings of Job Scott, which may 
throw some light on the subject. He says: 

"The Father, by the overshadowing of the 
holy ghost upon the willing mind, which em- 
braces and yields to the visitations, operations, 
and wooings of his love, begetteth and pro- 
duceth a true and real birth of divine life, a 
conception and birth of that which is truly 
and properly his only begotten forever, being 
one in all his spiritual offspring. This is he 
that is born again of God, of the incorrupti- 
ble seed and word of God." 6 

This statement is supplemented by the fol- 
lowing, and we quote the entire paragraph : 

"In the production of this conception, gen- 
eration, and birth, there is both Father and 
mother. He that begets, is the only possible 

6 Works of Job Scott, Vol. 1, p. 490. 



Page Sixty -One 

Father of this the only begotten. The soul in 
whom this conception and birth is effected, is 
the mother; and here 'the man is not without 
the woman, nor the woman without the man in 
the Lord/ This conception and birth can- 
not possibly be effected by the mother without 
the Father, and is never produced by the 
Father without the consent of the mother. 
There must be a celestial union, a real co- 
operation, wherein two become one. Of twain 
the one new man is made, which is God and 
man in the heavenly and mystical fellowship 
and union. This is the mystery of Christ. 
This is what is held forth strikingly and liv- 
ingly in his birth of the virgin Mary; and 
this ever was, and ever will be the only pos- 
sible way of salvation. This is the new crea- 
ture, that being born of God sinneth not; in- 
deed, cannot sin, and that for this very reason, 
because 'his seed remaineth in him, and he 
cannot sin, because he is born of God;' (1 
John iii. 9;) as really so, as one was ever born 
of another in natural procreation." 7 

But even this does not fully clear up the 



Works of Job Scott, Vol. 1, pp. 490-491. 



Pa (} e S ixtij - Two 

matter of the miraculous conception. It 
would seem to infer that the divine over- 
shadowing in all souls, resulting in the inward 
birth of Christ, is not unlike the birth of 
Christ of the Virgin Mary. Still it is pretty 
clear that in the mind of Job Scott the mere 
acceptance of any theory, or doctrinal propo- 
sition, of itself, is not a vital matter. Getting 
the spirit, and walking by it, is the main 
thing. 

Modern interpretations of Paul's Christ- 
ology, show that Job Scott was nearly in 
harmony with the Great Apostle. Dr. Mc- 
Gifferet tells us that Paul considered Christ 
"divine, not because of the perfection of his 
character, or the completeness of his revela- 
tions of God's will and truth, but because by 
his indwelling the nature of man is trans- 
formed." 8 Those who follow the theory of 
Job Scott will see easily that this was prac- 
tically his position. At this, and at other 

8 Protestant Thought Before Kant, p. 4. 



Page Sixty- Three 

points, Scott's theory of the function of Christ 
is intensely personal and practical. 

However Job Scott may have lined up with 
the Pauline theory at some points, at one point 
he supplemented it. It is asserted that Paul's 
theory was that "No man can enjoy the vision 
of God and the eternal life unless he be born 
from above, unless he be recreated by divine 
power." 1 Scott had a similar theory, but from 
his standpoint the birth was within. Without 
the seed of God in men, the birth from above 
could have no lodging place. The real birth 
from above had its beginning when the meas- 
ure of the divine spirit was placed in man at 
birth. What might be called the second birth, 
or the recreation by divine power took place 
when the consciousness of the divine union 
was experienced. 

iProtestant Thought Before Kant. McGiffert, p. 2. 



VARIOUS OPINIONS. 

Like many of the Friendly preachers of the 
period, Job Scott thought that the accumula- 
tion of great wealth was likely to develop a 
love of money which was incompatible with 
a high type of spiritual life. The love of 
money, he said, had made a great "destruction 
of religious engagement s." In the letter dic- 
tated to his friends in America during his 
last illness* he asked that his children might 
be "engaged in some innocent employments." 
But in this matter he desired that they might 
be kept "out of the way of very great accu- 
mulation, and yet, through industry and per- 
severance moderately productive. My very 
soul abhors the idea that a Christian can ever 
be at liberty, whilst under the heavenly good, 
to seek* or even desire much wealth. " * 

1 Works of Job Scott, Vol. 1, page 465. 
Page Sixty-Four 



Page Sixty-Five 

He took very strong ground against Friends 
paying war taxes, or receiving war money. 
During the Revolutionary War, when the 
Colonial Government issued its paper cur- 
rency, as a military measure, Job Scott was 
concerned that Friends should not receive this 
money, or use it, and exhorted them to even 
suffer loss rather than to have the tainted 
paper in their possession. It was his firm 
conviction that suffering in person and prop- 
erty w r as infinitely preferable to soiling the 
soul with conduct which encouraged and sup- 
ported the war spirit or practice. 

It is quite natural that a man thus thinking 
about wealth and war, should also insist that 
the recognition of social distinctions was un- 
christian. Rich people associating only with 
rich people, and the poor maintaining only 
social relations among themselves he consid- 
ered morally and spiritually pernicious. Re- 
specting persons he did not consider war- 
ranted by the plain teaching of Christ. He 
quotes with unqualified approval William 



Page Sixty-six 

Perm's well-known maxim : "Not to think any 
one, nor oneself, the better or worse for 
money, or the want of money." It probably 
never occurred to Job Scott that society has 
never had much to do with the moral and 
spiritual quality in men and women. Social 
compatibility, and not ethics, has generally 
been the determining matter in social prefer- 
ences and social distinctions. 

In a certain sense Job Scott seems to have 
anticipated the development or evolutionary 
theory. In a letter addressed to his "Be- 
loved parents, all three," dated 14th of 
Eleventh month, 1793, just a few clays before 
his death, we find this rather remarkable 
statement : 

"Our views of things do not usually open 
all at once ; it is so in the individual, it is so 
in the world. Things have hitherto been grad- 
ually evolving, and it may be consistent with 
Infinite Wisdom that such a progression shall 
always continue. At the present day, things 
are considerably ripening, and I have not the 
least doubt that before a great while a high- 



Page Sixty -Seven 

way will be opened through kingdoms and 
nations, where darkness has long reigned, for 
the publication of the everlasting gospel in its 
true life and authority; and as what is re- 
vealed in the ear is in due time to be declared 
on the housetop, I have little or no doubt that 
the doctrine of Christ will be much better 
understood than has hitherto been generally 
the case." 2 

Manifestly he did not mean by "doctrine" 
the pronouncements of the creeds or the con- 
fessions of faith but rather the better under- 
standing of the vital and practical things of 
the gospel. It is possible that the signs of our 
own times, touching personal and national life 
and relations are proving Job Scott a true 
prophet. That he so clearly and concisely 
stated the best part of the evolutionary 
theory, in the last decade of the eighteenth 
century, looks almost like a revelation. Even 
if we assume that Job Scott was acquainted 
with the writings of Erasmus and the other 

2 Works of Job Scott, Vol. I, pages 462-63. 



Page Sixty-Eight 

Humanists, their few and feeble hints in this 
direction would in no way warrant us in con- 
sidering Scott a borrower. 

Job Scott was a vigorous denyer of the 
ordinarily accepted doctrine of the trinity. 
He declared: "There is scarcely a greater 
deviation from every result of a good, sound 
understanding, even in atheism itself, than is 
the trinitarian doctrine/' 3 He treats the trin- 
itarian formula of "Father, Son and Holy 
Spirit," in this fashion: 

"He that can believe that, that which is, 
above all things, one; in itself and in its very 
nature, more absolutely one, than any thing 
else is, or can be known to be so, is, notwith- 
standing, an eternal three; seems to me to be 
scarcely capable of reasoning; or at least, too 
deeply imposed upon by systematic absurdity, 
to pass for a man who has well exercised 
faculties that are truly rational. " . . . "But 
I am ready to conclude, if a man could take an^ 
unconfined view of things, he would find no" 

s Works of Job Scott, Vol. I, page 370. 



Page Sixty-Nine 

more cause to believe an eternal trinity in 
God, either from reason, revelation, or any 
thing said in the Scriptures, than he would 
believe that there has eternally existed seven 
distinct, different and separate spirits in one 
simple, single, and uncompounded spirit of 
God. We read expressly of the 'seven spirits 
of God/ Shall we hence conclude an eternal 
seven in the Deity? Every whit as well as 
an eternal three. And we may conclude he 
is an eternal seventy as well as either. Indeed, 
whenever we admit of an eternal plurality, we 
destroy the very idea of the one God; lay 
waste the most essential thing in the defini- 
tion of him ; run into open confusion and ab- 
surdity, and open the door to endless error, 
uncertainty and contradiction." 4 

In this quotation Job Scott, in a measure, 
anticipated the claim of the modern man, who 
fancies that the collective side of Divinity 
must have expression, and clings to the trinity 
as essential to that expression. Scott sums 
the whole matter up in the inferred inquiry, 
why specify any number at all? 

4 Works of Job Scott, Vol. I, pages 370-371. 



Page Seventy 

Still Job Scott advocated a very broad gauge 
type of religion for his time. Under its man- 
tle all sorts and conditions of men, and the 
holders of various creeds were counted. This 
religion was simply "the work of the spirit 
of God in the souls of mankind." It was his 
belief that all religious denominations and 
systems contained "something of the true re- 
ligion, even though some of these, through the 
prejudice of education, disallow it in pro- 
fession." 5 

It will probably be a surprise to most 
Friends that this eighteenth century preacher 
gave warm approval to the conference idea. 
It is possible that the first conference in the 
history of the Society in America may have 
met in 1783, under a concern of Job Scott's 
monthly meeting, and for which, in all prob- 
ability, he was largely responsible. He says 
that these gatherings were held from "a desire 
to meet together at seasons to confer together 

5 Works of Job Scott, Vol. I, page 301. 



Page Seventy -One 

upon such subjects as might seem profitable " 
He was certain that these gatherings were of 
great value to the Society, and thus spoke of 
them : 

"We have had much solid satisfaction in 
them, and a belief has been sealed on our 
minds, that such opportunities are very profit- 
able, and might be highly promotive of the 
welfare of society, if rightly encouraged and 
attended, in the several monthly meetings; 
and perhaps in some places, members from 
several monthly meetings, might usefully at- 
tend such conferences/' 6 

The General Conference representing the 
seven yearly meetings of one branch of 
Friends, and the Five Years' Meeting repre- 
senting the other branch, are simply the devel- 
opment of the Scott idea to its final appli- 
cation. 

Stickler as he was for the Quaker ways 
and manners, he clearly saw that there was 



« Works of Job Scott, Vol. I, page 135. 



Page Seventy -Two 

no life in an outward "formless formality. ,, 
It was his opinion that this was manifested 
in the conduct of not a few "plain Friends. " 
He also felt that "many place too much of 
religion in little outside things, as dress, lan- 
guage, forms, etc., little better in themselves 
than tithing mint, and rue and the like." 

It is clear that Job Scott believed that sup- 
posed economic laws would fail to operate 
against those who had an eye single to the 
things of the spirit, and who were willing to 
spend and be spent in the service of gospel 
truth. Literally he advocated taking little or 
no thought for the morrow, on the part of 
those who were spiritually enlightened and 
led. In 1791, some time after the death of 
his wife, he said that it had been borne in 
upon him that little or nothing more would 
ever be required of him in a business way. 
At the age of forty he turned his back upon 
all of the material interests which generally 
allure men. He was sure that more dedica- 
tion of heart and singleness of devotion" 



Page Se verity- Tit ret 

were required at his hands as a servant of 
the Lord. He put the following words con- 
cerning his own work into the mouth of the 
inspeaking spirit: "Be thou faithful unto 
death, and I will assuredly give thee a crown 
of life. I will hold thee in my holy hand for- 
ever. I will provide for and take care of thy 
motherless, and, as it were, of thy fatherless 
children in thy absence. But if thou decline 
my service and appointment, I can, and as- 
suredly will, blast all thy undertakings." 

Just the number of men and women who 
could healthfully and helpfully have this ex- 
perience, and reach this conclusion is not 
recorded in the membership of the Society 
of Friends. There are many fairly concerned 
and dedicated persons, however, who would 
have grave doubts about such an impersonal 
resignation to the Divine Providence. They 
would be painfully conscious that the provi- 
dence in most cases would have a human ap- 
plication, and would religiously hold back 
from unloading individual care and responsi- 



Page Seventy Four 

bility upon others. This, however, is not 
written in judgment, much less in censure. 
Each soul must be true to its own light, and 
meet the vicissitudes of its own experience in 
its own way. Surely we may all seek to 
avoid the merely imitative virtues and testi- 
monies. 



BAPTISM AND PUNISHMENT. 

As was stated in the early part of this 
story, during the unsettled period of his young 
manhood, Job Scott became more or less in- 
terested in the matter of water baptism. After 
his admission into the Society of Friends, his 
mature conviction changed his attitude, and 
caused him to believe that as a rite baptism 
had no value, and, as a matter of fact, all 

outward ordinances were superseded by the 
Christian dispensation. One of his longest 

pamphlets dealt with this matter. It was pub- 
lished about 1787, under the following title: 
'The Baptism of Christ, a Gospel Ordinance ; 
Being Altogether Inward and Spiritual." 

In this pamphlet it is argued that Jesus 
did not begin his active ministry until the close 
of the dispensation of John. The water bap- 

Page Seventy-Five 



Page Seventy -Six 

tism of John, it is claimed, simply preceded 
and introduced the baptism of the spirit under 
Christ. Various reasons are given by Job 
Scott for believing that water baptism has 
no essential place in the Christian church. 
Peter, he says, finally ceased to practice the 
rite, although he had commanded the whole 
household of Cornelius to be baptised. It is 
also held that because the Disciples baptised 
in water, "no more perpetuates w r ater baptism 
than their circumcising, purifying, shaving, 
vows, anointing the sick with oil, abstaining 
from blood, and from things strangled, per- 
petuate these things in the church/' * 

Christ, according to Scott, never owned 
water baptism as part of his system. Besides, 
the rite to have potency, it must have con- 
tinuity. To keep up the succession, Christ, 
having been baptised with water, should have 
performed the rite on his Disciples, before 
they went out to baptise others. But it is 

1 Works of Job Scott. Vol. II, page 294. 



Page Seventy-Seven 

averred that "Jesus himself baptised not." 
" Nothing can be gospel baptism which is 
not saving." John was careful to prevent the 
idea that his baptism had saving efficacy. "It 
is the soul that needs purgation; the baptism 
which effects this, cannot be that which is 
merely with elementary water, but must be 
that which burns up the filth, and removes the 
defilement ; that is the baptism into the name, 
the life, the cleansing virtue of the divine 
nature." 2 

Job Scott says that the Epistles to the Gal- 
atians and the Colossians "seem to have been 
written on purpose to dissuade from attach- 
ment to and retention of the rituals of the 
shadowy dispensations." 3 Again we are told 
that "If circumcision is inward, so is baptism. 
If the baptism is outward, so is the circum- 
cision." 4 In other words, there is just as 

-Works of Job Scott, Vol. II, page 527. 

3 Works of Job Scott, Vol. II, page 529. 

4 Works of Job Scott, Vol. II, page 550. 



Pa g e 8 even ty -Eight 

much reason for clinging to any or all of the 
pre-christian practices, like circumcision, as 
there is for retaining water baptism as a vital 
Christian ordinance. Job Scott affirms that 
Paul "thanked God that he baptised no more. ,, 
This assertion is probably based on Paul's 
statement (I Corinthians, 1: 14): "I thank 
God that I baptised none of you but Crispus 
and Gaius." That the Great Apostle was 
rather indifferent regarding water baptism as 
a Christian essential is warranted by other 
statements in the epistles. In verse 17, of 
the chapter quoted, he says : "For Christ sent 
me not to baptise, but to preach the gospel. " 

It is admitted by Job Scott that what he 
calls the "figurative dispensation" was not 
entirely dispensed with until after the resur- 
rection. Still, he believed that the Lord's 
Supper was only to be observed until Christ 
came as the Comforter, and he so came to the 
hearts of men after the ascension. 

To sum up the position regarding baptism, 
it was claimed that the new covenant is alto- 



Page Seven ty~ N in e 

gether inward and spiritual, and the baptism, 
which goes with it, is a baptism unto disciple- 
ship. Things outward and material have no 
vital place in a purely spiritual gospel. If this 
gospel succeeds to the benefit of men, it must 
be of God, not man. Claiming that the shadow 
of ritualistic and outward conformity to arbi- 
trarily established rites has always detained 
people from the substance of the spiritual life, 
or at least has had the tendency to do so, 
Job Scott denied both the usefulness and the 
validity of the outward ordinances. 

About 1785 Job Scott published a pamphlet 
of eighty pages, with this rather ponderous 
title: "Future Rewards and Punishments 
Maintained; as Evidently Held Forth in the 
Scriptures. " He seems to have based this 
contention against "universal salvation," on 
the ground that a doctrine of this sort loosened 
the cords of restraint, and had an unmoral 
if not an immoral influence on conduct. He 
tells us that his final conclusion was based on 
experience. At one time he looked with favor 



Page Eighty 

on the universalist theory, and found himself 
losing his zeal for righteousness. Things 
which at one time he clearly saw to be evil, 
began to seem tolerable. "The wound," he 
says, "which I had been in hopes was almost 
a deadly one, in regard to some corrupt prac- 
tices, now began to be healed; and I could 
look with too much delight upon, and almost 
embrace, the present temptations of my soul's 
enemy." 5 

The pamphlet in question was written in 
answer to a tract published by one James 
Relly. That document contained some strange 
statements from the standpoint of the twen- 
tieth century. It is doubtful if the Univer- 
salist of our time would recognize their own 
doctrine in this antiquated garb. Among some 
of the affirmations of Relly was this: "God 
loved mankind before Jesus died for them; 
if God loved them before, he certainly saw 
them in a sinless state, for it is contrary to 

^ Works of Job Scott, Vol. II, page 342. 



Page Eighty -() n e 

the holiness of his nature to love the unclean/' 
Job Scott's answer to this strange statement 
shows pretty clearly his manner when engaged 
in a controversy, however it may come short 
of dealing with the merits of the case. He 
says, if men "were clean and sinless before 
Jesus died 'for them/ his death was unneces- 
sary, has done no good, and was of no influ- 
ence to mankind/' In the extract from Relly 
we have a fine sample of the way the eight- 
eenth century theologian took liberties with the 
Almighty, in determining for Him what He 
could and could not do, especially in the way 
of loving sinners. 

Relly dealt in a metaphysical way with the 
commonly accepted theory of the "fall of 
man," and this gave Job Scott an opportunity 
to deal with this ancient doctrine. In this, 
as in many other matters, he was at variance 
with the claims of orthodox theology in his 
time. He believed that men inherit evil pro- 
pensities and sin by inclination, but he evi- 

6 



Page Eighty -Two 

dently did not think that the sin of Adam 
forced the race into inquity. He says: "But 
to suppose that we all sinned in Adam, before 
we were born, or derived actual guilt from his 
transgression, without regard to our own in- 
dividual offences, is too gross an idea to be 
admitted, and casts a dark gloom over the 
justice of God." 6 

From the standpoint of Job Scott the "lost 
state" in the future life proceeds from willful 
neglect to live rightly here. He cites the par- 
able of the talents, and declares: "Now, the 
unprofitable servant really witnessed, in the 
first instance, the offer of Christ's universal 
salvation; he received a 'talent/ and had he 
improved it, he might have entered with 'a 
well done' into the joy of his Lord, as well 
as the others; but not improving it he lost it, 
and with it lost the favor of his Lord, and 
the joys of his kingdom." 7 

6 Works of Job Scott, Vol. II, page 357. 

7 Works of Job Scott, Vol. II, page 306. 



Page Eighty- Three 

That his ideas on the matters treated in this 
pamphlet would hardly stand the theological 
test is evident. He says: 

"All the salvation we need is from sin and 
its effects ; for sin is the only cause of separa- 
tion from God, and all divine good; so that 
sin being really, not ideally removed and done 
away with, the love of God is shed abroad in 
our hearts, and this is all our salvation, and 
our chief est joy. But to tell of Christ's re- 
moving and taking away, or saving us from 
our sins, while yet they remain, and rule, and 
reign in us. ... is the height of nonsense 
and absurdity." 8 

Still touching the fixed, and unremedial 
character of the life to come, Job Scott was 
substantially orthodox. In the other world, 
as he believed, we enter upon our "last state." 
As that finds us we are to abide forever. If 
this position seems inconsistent with his evi- 
dent grasp of the development theory, pre- 
viously noted, it must be remembered that 

8 Works of Job Scott, Vol. II, page 382. 



Page Eighty-Four 

it is no part of the writer's task to reconcile 
either real or imaginary conflicting opinions, 
as they appeared in the thinking of Job Scott. 
It is very clear that Job Scott did not believe 
that the state of men in the next world is 
determined by the mere acceptance of any set 
of doctrines, or any scheme of salvation. He 
asserted that the claim that "every one who 
can believe an account of simple facts con- 
cerning Christ's death and resurrection" have 
the "purged conscience,'' was a mischievous 
notion. In his mind, accepting Christ involved 
leading the Christ life, and being saved from 
sin, and not in sin. He declares that Paul 
nowhere told sinners to simply believe that 
Christ died for them and all would be well. 
His constant assertion was that all must "die 
with Christ/' to sin, to get the benefit of safety 
in the life to come. 



BELATED CRITICISM. 

During his lifetime Job Scott seems to have 
escaped arousing personal antagonism on the 
part of Friends, and his preaching called forth 
little or no criticism within the Society. But 
in 1825, thirty-four years after his death, Luke 
Howard, a Friend living at Tottenham, near 
London, issued a letter evidently intended for 
American circulation, in which Scott was 
rather violently, if not vigorously, criticised. 
This letter made about twenty printed pages, 
and brought a reply from a person signing 
himself "A Friend in America." The reply 
made a pamphlet of fifty pages. It was circu- 
lated in 1826, and forms an interesting sample 
of "pre-separation" literature. A very little 
reading between the lines forces the conclu- 
sion that the controversy from 1825 to 1828 

Page Eighty-Five 



Page Eighty-Six 

in this country, was not so much on account 
of startingly new, or supposedly heretical doc- 
trine preached by Elias Hicks, but rather be- 
cause a certain amount of prejudiced excite- 
ment had been aroused among Friends, by 
those who insisted upon emphasizing a type 
of theology which had not generally been con- 
sidered of vital value in the Society. This 
attitude had in a measure honeycombed the 
Society on both sides of the sea. It seems 
quite evident that if there had been any real 
objections to Job Scott's views, as being out 
of harmony with the general Friendly posi- 
tion, they would naturally have found utter- 
ance long before 1825, a generation after his 
death, and twenty-eight years after his writ- 
ings had become public property. 

We can only meagerly condense the points, 
relating to the matter and the manner of the 
message which Job Scott delivered, and upon 
which Luke Howard based his criticism. In 
the first place he claimed that Scott had a 
"perceptible excess on the side of the imagina- 



Page Eighty -Seven 

tion and feelings, which constituted him a 
fanatic, and this temper in a manner dis- 
qualifies a minister from being a competent 
judge of doctrine and controversies." The 
inference drawn from this statement by How- 
ard, and the inference was by no means even 
slightly veiled, was that no reliance should be 
placed on Job Scott's judgment. 

The unknown defender of Scott quotes 
from his memorialists as to the soundness of 
his doctrine, and the blameless character of 
his life as an offset to the findings of the 
English critic. This led to the asking of cer- 
tain questions which may be summed up as 
follows: How was it, he says, that Scott's 
fanaticism and heresy escaped the notice of 
those Friends in America and the British Isles 
who knew him best? Even supposing that 
Scott had never indulged in any excesses of 
the imagination when at home and among his 
own kindred, having reserved all this "false 
fire" until he reached Europe, it is amazing 
strange that the Irish Friends, who were with 



Page Eighty-Eight 

him at the end, did not then and there find 
out his weakness. On the contrary, the Me- 
morial of the National Half- Year's Meeting 
of Friends in Ireland said this about the 
stranger who had died within their gates: 

"From genuine marks evinced in the 
course of his religious services, we believe 
him to have been an instrument fitted and 
prepared by the Great Master, through deep 
and repeated baptisms, for use and service in 
his church militant — called and sent forth by 
the immediate influence of his spirit to pub- 
lish his gospel/' . . . "His conversation 
was coupled with fear, as well as seasoned 
with grace; and being deep in heavenly mys- 
teries, he was cautious of squandering the 
same, yet when at liberty for conversation, his 
communications were agreeable and remark- 
ably instructive." 

The questions raised by the "Friend in 
America" could not well be answered, either 
at this point or touching the other matters of 
criticism brought forward by Howard. 

In rather savage fashion Howard compared 



Page Eighty-N irte 

Scott to an ignorant hired servant, and that 
without definitely specifying the charge. He 
also claimed that there were "expressions 
(from the essay entitled Salvation by Christ) 
which could not be read in a mixed company 
of Friends of both sexes without bringing 
confusion over some of their faces." An ex- 
amination of the pamphlet in question does 
not warrant the charge from any reasonable 
standpoint. What reference there may be to 
"delicate" matters are really literal quotations 
from Scripture. In fact, Job Scott was pre- 
eminently chaste in his life, and in the choice 
of his language. 

In the midst of his criticism Luke Howard 
professed to have great regard for the memory 
of Job Scott, and intimated that his criticism 
w r as inspired from a concern for the departed 
Friend's religious reputation. Still it is not 
easy to see how anything that Howard did 
could have saved the reputation of Job Scott, 
presuming that it needed saving. 

The real situation and motive in this critical 



Page Ninety 

letter may be discovered when it is closely 
analyzed. Luke Howard intimates that the 
pamphlet ''Salvation by Christ" would not 
have been published at all if its appearance 
had been delayed until 1825. The inference 
from that is that Society pressure might have 
been brought to bear upon the author had 
he lived. This is practically a tacit admission 
that an arbitrary authority had risen in the 
Society since the time of Job Scott, which 
would have interfered with the liberty of the 
spirit, when it did not conform to traditional 
teaching. The "Friend in America" expressed 
the counter opinion that the criticised pam- 
phlet would have been published in 1825 as 
surely as it was in 1797, if for no other reason 
than "Many members of the Society to which 
he (Scott) belonged, have since his time re- 
ceded from genuine Quakerism, in doctrine and 
practice, and have approached what are called 
the 'reformed churches/ " The real reason 
he says that any criticism was made at the 
late day of Howard's attack, was because 



Page Ninciy-One 

Scott was "an enemy of the outward scheme 
of redemption, which certain wealthy and in- 
fluential Friends in England have adopted." 
That Job Scott was such an enemy needs no 
proof to those who have followed the account 
of his views given in these pages. 

The most nearly valid charge made by 
Howard was that Job Scott had "interpreted 
doctrine from Scripture in a different way, 
touching salvation by Christ, from Christians 
in all ages." If the word "most" had been 
inserted to qualify the word Christians, the 
assertion could easily be admitted at its face 
value. Scott was at variance with commonly 
accepted notions, and so he believed were the 
"first publishers of truth," in the seventeenth 
century. The "Friend in America" declares 
that if it is a crime to interpret Scripture in- 
dependently, then Job Scott was in that re- 
spect in the good company of Wyclif, Huss, 
Calvin, and even George Fox himself. How- 
ard had affirmed that Scott pretended to be 
wise above what is written, and the Friend 



Page Ninety-Two 

who replied said if that was so, Howard was 
guilty of being wise in what is written, in 
claiming a monopoly of the right to interpret 
the Scriptures. 

There are not a few points in the corre- 
spondence under discussion which show the 
opposing views that had begun to exist in the 
Society. Howard objected to Job Scott using 
the phrase "God is manifest in the flesh," 
asserting that a statement regarding such 
manifestation should be worded in past tense. 
In fact, any claim that God is in men now 
was not compatible with the type of theology 
which many Friends had begun to hold, how- 
ever out of harmony it was with the affirma- 
tions of Fox, Penn and Barclay. Again 
Howard claimed that "the Scriptures are the 
light of the spiritual church"; this was, of 
course, antagonized by Scott, and vigorously 
denied by "The Friend in America." Job 
Scott's theory of the new birth was objected 
to by his English critic, and if Friends were 
under any obligation to accept the popular 



Page Ninety-Three 

orthodox theory of regeneration, the objection 
was valid. For Scott's claim that the new 
birth is simply the union of the human with 
the divine was not orthodox in the eighteenth 
century, and possibly is not now. 

In 1825 the point of controversy could very 
easily have been reduced to its simplest terms 
by trying to squarely meet the situation. Did 
the wSociety of Friends stand for a special type 
of doctrine touching God's relation to men, 
and the relation of men to God? That affirma- 
tion would have called forth few denials in 
the last half of the seventeenth century. Did 
the Society of Friends then, and does it now, 
possess principles and a polity which differ- 
entiate it from the other churches of Christen- 
dom? Whether it ever had such a possession 
or not, it was evidently the feeling of Luke 
Howard that it had not in any enduring sense ; 
for it was his opinion that "Friends should be 
absorbed into the great assembly of the visible 
church." It is absolutely certain that had the 
views held by Luke Howard had any con- 



Pa<je Ninety-Four 

siderable acceptance in the Society of Friends 
in Job Scott's time, he would have met with a 
keen and critical opposition, and a division in 
the Society would have come a generation 
before it did. The fact that neither the 
preaching nor the published opinions of Job 
Scott inspired either criticism or controversy 
during his lifetime is fairly good evidence 
that the causes of the trouble which eventually 
came may have been the fact that certain 
Friends desired to be orthodox and to stand 
for a type of traditional theology, a position 
which had not troubled the Society for a 
century and a half. 



SAMPLE SAYINGS. 

It is not hard to cull from the writings of 
Job Scott sentences almost axiomatic in their 
clearness. While he did write much that was 
involved, he also had the ability to make him- 
self clear and definite, and to put in brief 
space matter that in the first place is food for 
thought, and in the second place represents 
what he considered fundamental truth. We 
doubt not many, if not most, of these "say- 
ings" will meet the witness in the hearts of 
those who read these pages. The paragraphs 
printed below are culled practically at random 
from the "Works of Job Scott": 

The only real salvation of souls, was always 
the spirit of man united to God, the fountain 
of life. 

" Thou mayest think Christ can do something 
for thee without the spirit. If thou dost think 

Page Ninety-Five 



Page Ninety-Six 

so, thou hast not yet learned the A, B, C, of 
religion. 

All true prayer is the soul livingly in real 
motions toward God, drawing near to him, and 
laying hold of him. 

I am well settled in a firm belief of the 
reality of divine inspiration, and that it is as 
truly a privilege of Christians now, as it ever 
was in any age of the world. 

The man who walks humbly in the sight of 
God, and transgresses not the testimony of 
truth in his own heart, is in the way of eternal 
blessedness, let his belief be whatever it may, 
or his allotment in whatever dark corner of 
the earth it may be. 

He who rebels against the light that shines 
in his own heart, let his profession be ever so 
splendid, his faith ever so literally orthodox, 
or his zeal ever so ardent, he is not in the way 
of life and salvation, but is in the way of 
danger. 

The life of religion is an internal thing; and 
though doubtless affected by an outward con- 
duct, yet I think men are, and in every age 
will be, liable to get too much outward in 



Page Ninety-Seven 

their views, and lay too much stress on ex- 
teriors. 

And I am on this occasion renewedly con- 
firmed in a sentiment I have long been settled 
in, that there never was, and never will be but 
one true religion in the world, to wit, the 
work of the spirit of God in the souls of 
mankind. 

Were it not for this inward divine light, all 
nations must forever have been in darkness. 
And had it not enlightened every man, it could 
not be the condemnation of the wicked and 
abandoned. God will never condemn a soul 
for non-attention to a light that never shined 
in him, or upon him, or for the non-improve- 
ment of a talent never afforded. 

As we cannot know the outward sun, but 
by its own light and influence, no more can 
we know God, but by His own immediate 
light and influence. 

It is preposterous to suppose that the light 
is the privilege of believers only; for none 
could ever have been believers, had not the 
light first shined to give knowledge. 

God is love, is light, is life, power, wisdom, 
goodness, a fountain of living waters, a fire, 

7 



Page Ninety-Eight 

a refiner, etc. Yet, although he is truly all 
these, he is but one, and always the same, 
yesterday, to-day, and forever. 

I know of nothing more acceptable to God, 
or more useful, instructive, and strengthening 
to the souls of men, than true silent worship, 
and waiting on God for help immediately 
from his holy presence; nor of scarcely any- 
thing more formal and lifeless, than that dull, 
unfeeling silence, which too many of our 
meetings are satisfying themselves with, the 
year round, and from year to year. 

I was engaged to stand up and said: "If the 
dead rise not, then is Christ not risen;" and 
added, "However many may understand this 
of the resurrection of the body, and whatever 
meaning it may have in relation thereto, yet 
it has been opened to my mind, in the visions 
of light, that unless the dead in us arise, and 
is quickened, then is not Christ risen to and 
in us." 

Oh! the necessity of laboring for good 
order! and oh that it may be done with ten- 
derness, meekness, love and forbearance ! 
For I do not believe that labors bestowed more 
in order to cut off, than to reform and restore, 



Page Ninety -Nine 

will ever reach the true witness in the minds 
of offenders. 

Oh ! that they may no longer stand idle in 
the market place ! for the sluggard still is, and 
ever will be, clothed in rags, spiritually. "If 
any man will not work, neither shall he eat;" 
for certainly in spirituals as well as in naturals, 
we must eat our bread in the sweat of our face, 
or in real exercise. 

For God ever sees us as we are. And to 
suppose he sees us pure in Christ, by imputa- 
tion, while we are absolutely impure in our- 
selves, is to suppose he sees us as we are not. 
. . . And, until he saves us from, and not 
in, our sins, and purifies and makes us holy, 
in our own souls, he will never see, nor con- 
sider us to be holy in Christ. 

This is the mystery of the sufferings, and 
of the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ. 
Some may call me a heretic when I confess 
unto them, that I expect no final benefit from 
the death of Jesus, in any other way than 
through fellowship with him in his sufferings. 

Now I have no doubt that many thousands, 
who never professed to be Friends, both live 
and die in favor with God, and are eternally 



Page One Hundred 

happy. But I believe few, if any, who ever 
once truly knew, and had in living possession, 
that blessed life and truth, which is the sub- 
stantial foundation of our profession, could 
ever die in peace without the enjoyment of it; 
nay, I very much doubt, if ever any one did. 

But a literal knowledge availeth not, while 
he who never heard the outward name of 
Jesus, nor had any idea of the outward com- 
ing, may live in the very life of God, and enjoy 
that salvation, which was never without some 
real and substantial knowledge and heart- felt 
experience of Father, son and spirit. 

Job Scott engaged much in vocal prayer, 
and some of these supplications he has given 
us in his written works. Before starting on 
his trip to Europe, he records the following 
prayer : 

"Lord! thou hast held my hand, and cov- 
ered my head in many battles; be with me, I 
pray thee, through all; and keep me from evil. 
Be with my dear motherless children; visit 
them, I pray thee, by thy holy spirit; lead 
them in the way of refinement and self-denial ; 
and finally bring them unto glory. Visit and 



Page One Hundred -One 

revisit, bless and preserve, O Lord my God! 
I humbly pray thee, all my dear relations and 
friends; make bare thy arm for poor New 
England ; and if it be thy holy will, make thy- 
self more livingly known to many within her 
borders, and hasten thy great work over the 
face of the earth; that nation may cease war- 
ring with nation, and righteousness cover the 
earth, as water does the sea." 

Weary of these pursuits, a man may try 
devotion, prayers, sermons, psalms, cere- 
monies, forms, and performances of religion 
(so esteemed). He may hear and tell a great 
deal of Christ, of faith, of imputation, and of 
being complete in Jesus, but all this will never 
anchor his soul upon that which is sure and 
steadfast, will never give him the true rest 
and enjoyment of souls, nor center him in 
God, unless he truly knows the son of God 
begotten, formed, and brought forth in him- 
self, wherein alone the union with God, and 
the Immanuel state consisteth. 

God will be forever disposed alike at all 
times to a soul in the same state. If he rejects 
at one time for actual sin or sinfulness, he will 
always reject for the same. It is perfectly 
idle to talk of being completely reconciled to 



Page One Hundred-Tivo 

God by the righteousness of Christ, whilst re- 
maining actually sinners in ourselves; or that 
we are holy in him, and unholy in ourselves. 
God always regards us just as we are in our- 
selves, and is to us accordingly, because he 
cannot change. 

He also showed me that religion was an in- 
ternal life in the soul; that great attention, 
sincerity and punctuality were necessary to 
the growth and prosperity of it; that I must 
not be content with attending meetings, and 
sitting in silence, though ever so reverently 
and properly; I must live continually in an 
inward watchfulness and dedication of heart; 
watch all my thoughts, words, and know all 
brought to judgment. 

We here saw a very noisy man in talk and 
preaching (as I suppose he accounted it) 
about religion. He spoke a great deal about 
the motions of the spirit, and said he was act- 
ing in obedience to his Lord and Master Jesus 
Christ. But the frothy, insensible and un- 
savory state that he appeared to act and speak 
in, was enough, I thought, to prejudice almost 
any one, who was not well established in the 
truth of the doctrine of divine assistance, and 
the influence and leadings of the spirit in the 



Page One Hundred- Three 

work of the ministry, against any such doc- 
trine. 

And this remark occurs: that it is probable 
that there would be few pretenders to divine 
influence, if no such thing was known at all 
as a reality. All counterfeit coin implies, and 
is an intimation of, something real and sub- 
stantial. And they who are well acquainted 
with the reality, know certainly that there is 
such a thing; however, others may be dealing 
in counterfeits. 

Some appear vainly to think, if they get to 
be very plain and regular outwardly, they 
have a right to think pretty well of their 
state. And, alas ! too many place much of 
religion in little outside things, as dress, lan- 
guage, forms, etc. 

In the midst of all my zeal for plainness 
and simplicity, I abundantly prefer a state of 
some latitude in these things, with a frank, 
open, charitable disposition, and a lively, feel- 
ing exercise, and travail of soul, to all pos- 
sible exactness in exteriors, with a rigid, 
narrow, self-righteous disposition, and a 
starched, censorious heart that says, "Stand 
still by thyself — I am holier than thou." 



Page One Hundred -Four 

The life of religion is an internal thing ; and 
though, doubtless affected by an outward con- 
duct, yet I think men are, and in every age 
will be, liable to get too much outward in their 
views, and lay too much stress on exteriors. . . 
All exterior things in a religious life may be 
overrated, and relied upon, till they become as 
the brazen serpent, Nehaustan, a mere piece of 
brass* And, I think, if one exact, uniform 
appearance in all things, ever takes place in 
our Society, and is thought necessary and in- 
sisted on, it will be when the form has eat out 
the substance, or for the want of a real in- 
ward growth in the life, the form becomes the 
main object, instead of the substance. 

I believe the Society of Friends have not 
lived strictly and steadfastly in the root and 
Substance of the principle they profess, which 
is the very power of God unto salvation. They 
have too generally given way, and not held 
up the testimony and standard to the nations, 
as they were eminently called upon to do ; but 
have settled too much into formality in their 
discipline, life, practice and worship. 



APPENDIX. 

As stated on page twenty of this book, Job 
Scott was married to Eunice Anthony in 
1780. It would seem to be worth while to 
publish in this book a sample Scott love letter. 
About six months before their marriage, Job 
wrote Eunice the letter given in full below. 
In his Journal he says : 'The following I 
wrote her just after my first addresses to her 
on account of marriage, viz. :" 

North Providence, 22d of 1st month, 1780. 
Most Affectionately Beloved : 

After reading over several memorandums of 
the exercises my poor soul has passed through, 
in my pilgrimage through this vale of tears, 
my heart salutes thee in a fresh spring of that 
love which I feel increasing, and hope may 
never wax cold towards thee. And having 
felt thee abundantly near this evening, I am 
free to write what revives for thy perusal, 
hoping it may be useful towards our rightly 
stepping along through time together. And, 
first, dearly beloved, let me tefl thee, that how- 
ever short I may be of strict adherence to the 

Page One Hundred-Five 



Page One Hundred-Six 

light of life, yet it is my crown, my chiefest 
joy, to feel the holy, harmonious influences 
and inshinings of Jesus my savior upon my 
soul; and I feel that without this I must be 
miserable indeed. I also believe that the true 
enjoyment of the marriage-union is eminently 
in both being engaged to draw near the Lord, 
and act in his counsel ; which I not only wish, 
but in a good degree expect, may be our happy 
case. If it should, though we have as it were 
a dry morsel to partake of, as to the 
things of this life, yet we may joy in the Lord, 
and rejoice in the God of our salvation. Thou 
knowest I have no great things to invite thee 
to. If we are joined together (which I 
trust we already measurably are), we must not 
expect the paths of affluence; no, no. 

"This day be bread and peace our lot, 

All else beneath the sun, 
Thou knowest if best bestowed or not, 
And let thy will be done." 
This, my dear, our minds must come to, if 
we intend to be happy; yet this I know, that 
one who cannot lie, has promised to add all 
things necessary to those who seek first the 
kingdom of heaven, and in this I confide. Let 
us, therefore, unite in seeking this heavenly 



Page One H unci 'red-Seven 

kingdom, and that in the first place. And 
may we, the remainder of our lives, earnestly 
press after resignation to the Lord's will ; and, 
above all things, strive to please him who only 
can give peace in whatever circumstances we 
may be. Then, I trust, the guardian angel of 
his holy presence will encamp around, and 
his everlasting arms be underneath to support 
us. Farewell, my dear, farewell, says thy sure 
friend, 

Job Scott. 

Soon after Job Scott's return from his long 
trip to the southern states, involving an ab- 
sence of over a year, his wife died. She 
passed away in seventh month, 1791, their 
married life lasting eleven years. 

Job Scott wrote verses at times. Some of 
these effusions were written to his wife, but 
none of them probably reached the dignity of 
poetry. Scott's rhymes scarcely reached the 
level of what Whittier called "Ellwood's 
meek, drab-skirted muse." Still his efforts in 
that line should have some place in this little 
volume. What verses he wrote were severely 



Page One Hundred-Eight 

religious, and pious, if not platitudinous. We 
quote just a few samples: 

But here awhile on earth I stay, 

A thorny path to tread ; 
Lord, suffer me no more to stray, 

Till numbered with the dead. 

And when from cum'brous loads of dust, 

Thy hand my soul shall free, 
Oh ! thou who gave me life at first, 

Still give me life in thee. 



At my command, when "peace, be still/' I say, 
No lawless wave shall ever disobey. 
I hold the helm, — in awfulness preside; 
I rule the storm, and on the tempest ride. 

Fear not the waves, nor shudder at their roar ; 
Firm thou shalt stand, as on the firmest shore. 
And on the shore, again, thy foot shall stand ; 
Again shall wonder strike thy eyes by land. 



Great things to come I'll show thee. 
And mysteries dark unfold; 

Thine ear shall hear, astonished ; 
Thine eyes, surprised, behold. 



Page One Hundred -Nine 



Things yet untaught, I'll teach thee ; 

Things not yet seen disclose ; 
Through perils great, I'll lead thee, 

And vanquish all thy foes. 

5jC 3|* 5{C ^f* *i* 

Through every strait I'll lead thee, 

Wherever I shall send, 
With bread of life I'll feed thee, 

Until thy journey's end. 

And when thy work is finished, 
And death has set thee free ; 

To glory I'll receive thee, 
To reign in life with thee. 



INDEX. 

Aldrich, Daniel, traveling companion of J. S., 27; 

taken ill, 28. 
Anthony, Eunice, marries J. S., 20; death, 107. 

Ballitore, Ireland, visited by J. S., 37; death in, 38. 
Baptism and Punishment, 75. 
Boston, Mass., J. S. sails from, 32. 

Christ's death and suffering, 44. 
Christ, knowledge of, 46; salvation in, 47. 
Christology, Job Scott's, 52. 
Conference idea favored by J. S., 70-71. 

Dover, England, J. S. visits, 36. 

Dream by J. S. about conflagration of world, 14. 

Dublin, Ireland, voyage of J. S. to, 36. 

Dunkirk, France, J. S. sails for, 32; arrives in, 33. 

Economic laws abrogated, 72. 

Erasmus, reference to, 67. 

Europe, J. S. asks for minute to visit, 31 ; minute 

granted, 31. 
Evolution, theory of advocated, 66-67. 

Fox, George, reference to, 92. 
Formless formality, 72. 
Friend in America, A, defends J. S., 85-92 
Future rewards and punishments, 79; doctrine of 
upheld by J. S., 80-84. 

Gloucester, J. S. a resident of, 20. 

Gospel, no upstart thing, 48. 

Grellett, Stephen, statement by biographers, 8. 

Page One Hundred-Ten 



Page One Hundred -Eleven 

Hicks, Elias, reference to, 8; supposed heretical doc- 
trine of, 86. 
Howard, Luke, criticises J. S., 85-93. 

Ireland, J. S., visits, 36; National Half-Year's Meet- 
ing of Friends in, approves J. S., 88. 

Justification, J. S. on, 42. 

London Yearly Meeting, J. S. estimates, 34. 

Man's descent, 54. 

McGiffert, Dr., reference to, 62. 

Medicine, practice of by J. S., 20. 

Ministry, J. S.'s first appearance in, 18; his own 

statement about, 18. 
Mitchell, Joseph, traveling companion of J. S., 26; 

death of, 27. 
Mercury, J. S., a passenger on, 32. 

Negro Slavery, J. S. reference to, 29. 

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, J. S. visits meetings 
in, 27. 

Private Friends, relation to ministry, 25. 

Protestant Thought Before Kant, quotations from, 
62, 63. 

Providence Monthly Meeting memorializes J. S., 17. 

Purchase Q. M. visited by J. S., 24. 

Relly, James, tract by, 80; answered by J. S., 81. 

Salvation of God, 43. 

Salvation by Christ, 39-51. 

Scripture, independent interpretation of, 91. 

Scott, Job, birth, 10; interested in predestination, 13; 
one of his dreams, 14; his period of religious set- 
tlement, 15; procures plain clothing, 16; unites 
with Friends, 17; first appearance in the ministry, 



Page One Hundred-Twelve 

18; his school in Providence, 19; moves to 
Gloucester, 20; marriage, 20; practice of medicine, 
20; statement about, 21; considers minister ple- 
narily inspired, 23; his first extended religious 
visit, 24; visits meetings in New Jersey and Penn- 
sylvania, 26; visits widow of John Woolman, 26; 
visit to Southern states, 27; reference to negro 
slavery, 29; gets minute to visit Europe, 31; sails 
for France, 32; arrives at Dunkirk, 33; reference 
to London Yearly Meeting, 34; goes to Ireland, 
37; death and funeral, 38; Salvation by Christ, 
39-43; on death of Christ, 44, 55; his theory of 
salvation, 47; on divinity of Christ, 52; on Christ's 
coming, 54 ; on begetting and conception, 60-61 ; 
his various opinions, 64-84; on evolution, 66; on 
the Trinity, 66 ; on the conference idea, 71 ; on 
baptism, 75; he compares circumcism and bap- 
tism, 71; on rewards and punishments, 79-84; 
Belated Criticism, 85-94; sample sayings of, 95; 
letter to wife, 105; verses by, 108. 

Scriptures, independent interpretation of, 91. 

Shackleton, Elizabeth, entertains J. S., 38; J. S. dies 
in her house, 38. 

Social distinctions condemned by J. S., 65-66. 

Trinity, J. S. on doctrine of, 68-69. 

Verbal testimonies, J. S. on, 25. 
Virgin Mary, reference to, 53. 

War and war taxes, 65. 
Water baptism repudiated by J. S., 75-78. 
Woolman, John, reference to, 5; widow of visited 
by J. S., 26. 



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